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1 



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KANZAS 



AND 



THE CONSTITUTION. 



EY "CECIL." 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY DAMRELL & MOORE. 

1856. 






The article \vhich forms this pamphlet was printed on the first pags of the 
Philadelphia North American of July 31, 1856, under the signature of ♦' Cecil." 
It was copied into the Boston Daily Advertiser of August 18. Some gentlemen 
residing in this vicinity, desiring to secure for it a wide circulation, have taken 
measures for its publication in this pamphlet, and they respectfully commend 
it to thff^carcful attention of all readers into whose hands it may fall. 

Boston, September 15, 1856. 



KANZAS AND THE CONSTITUTION. 



«' The present time 's so sick, 
That present medicine must be ministered, 
Or overthrow inciirable ensues." 



King John. 



In the fortunes of nations, as of individuals, it is requisite for 
enjoyment, that every good should have the quality of security, of 
permanence. The sword of Damocles spoils the zest of any feast, 
and fear of change takes away the sweet uses of prosperity. • 

la the great experiment of democratic government that we are 
making, there is so much of good and evil ; so many destructive 
forces to cause alarm, and so much conservative power to inspire 
hope ; so much license given to ignorance, falsehood, error, and 
selfish passion, and so much inteUigence and virtue to resist them, 
that the mind wavers as it contemplates the varied picture, hesitates 
to form a judgment, and ends in doubt as to the future ; a painful 
and depressing feeling when related to a subject of so much magni- 
tude and interest. It is obvious to all, that our happiness and pros- 
perity depend upon the Union, that this is the arch which supports 
the structure of our national greatness ; yet this support is the very 
point that seems weakest, which gives signs from time to time that 
it is not able to bear the stately fabric that has been built upon it. 

The diversity between the Northern and Southern States in 
climate, soil, character, pursuits and manners, to one unacquainted 
with the history of the country, would seem a powerful cause of safety 
and durability. Agriculture is the chief business of the South ; the 
North has also commerce and manufactures, and the productions of 
each can be exchanged without impost or restriction. The South is 
in some respects a landed aristocracy ; the North is a democracy, so 
that it might be hoped that rash innovation and popular license 
would be restrained by conservative steadiness, love of order and 
respect for estabhshed usages and rights. The South is impulsive 
and enthusiastic, the North prudent and energetic ; the South loves 
ease, enjoyment and leisure, the North loves enterprise, work and 



accumulation. Each has what the other wants, each requires the 
other to complete its attributes and supply its needs, and the har- 
monious blending of the two would make a grand and noble whole. 
Unfortunately, the South has one peculiarity which satisfies no want, 
which excites no sympathy in the North, and thus from the South 
comes the danger that menaces both. 

The South is not wholly American, it is largely African. Its 
wealth and greatness are founded on the industry of an alien and 
inferior race, and which must always remain such. In the South 
the laboring class forms no portion of the people ; in the North it 
forms the great body of the people. In the South the laborers are 
slaves ; in the North they govern. In the South labor is degraded 
and despised ; in the North it is respectable and respected. African 
slavery therefore creates a difference between North and South that 
reaches the very central cause of the working of society. A com- 
munity in which the laboring classes are slaves, and one in which 
they £fre masters, do not differ merely — they are broadly contrasted. 

The negro race exists in such vast numbers in the South ; it is 
so degraded ; so incapable, from its nature, of any but very 
limited mental and moral improvement ; so fitted for servitude, and 
so contented and thriving in servitude ; so wholly unfitted for liberty, 
or self-government, or self-care, that slavery is an institution abso- 
lutely essential to the South. Its preservation is the condition on 
which the South holds its tranquillity, its safety, its existence. For 
this reason the South, when the Constitution was made, claimed and 
obtained from the founders of our government what was then deemed 
ample protection for slavery. 

It could not be long before a difference so radical between the 
two sections of the country would produce very marked results. 
One result has been the great and rapidly increasing inequality of 
wealth and population. Of wealth, because free, intelligent labor is 
far more productive than slave-labor, especially in commerce, manufac- 
tures and the mechanic arts, which are the most profitable, and to 
which slave-labor cannot be applied. Of population, because free 
laborers themselves are citizens. 

Another effect of this difference of social, industrial and political 
condition, must be and has been, difference of opinion on the subject 
of slavery gradually growing into positive hostility. Slaves are not 
mere property. Human nature rises against and refutes that dogma. 
Slaves are men, with moral and spiritual life, with sentiments and 
affections. They are persons, not things, and out of this fountain — 
truth flow all these troubled waters. Whenever man, his happiness 



and destiny, becomes the subject of dispute, a thousand religious, 
moral and political questions arise, -which stir to their depths those 
powerful convictions and passions, whose strife resounds through all 
the history of the past, and has decided heretofore, as it must here- 
after, the fate of nations and the progress of humanity. 

The growing strength of the North, and the menacing attitude 
which a part of it has taken against slavery, produced the Kanzas 
bill. Alarmed for its safety, the South has sought means of pro- 
tection greater than the law afforded. It wishes to guard not the 
present only, but the future. It is now outnumbered in the House, 
and equality in the Senate seems to it the only resource left that can 
afford a legal barrier to the dreaded encroachments of the North. 
To obtain this equality, it is necessary to have new Slave States, and 
the infant territory of Kanzas is the only one that there is now any 
hope of gaining. Hence the importance of the contest going on in 
Congress, and the excitement it creates. 

The Missouri Compromise stood in the way of this project. It 
Avas therefore repealed. The probable majority in the House against 
the extension of slavery Avas another obstacle. How was this to be 
overcome ? By the Constitution, and the uniform construction of it 
and practice under it, Congress has supreme power over the territo- 
ries ; has the same power to prohibit slavery in a Territory that the 
government of one of the States has to prohibit it in a State. The 
South then could not trust to the usages and received construction 
of the Constitution, to the regular and legal action of the federal 
government. Unless the Territories could be got beyond the power 
of Congress, there was danger that, not in Kanzas only, but in all 
future Territories and States, slavery would be prohibited, and thus 
the South be placed irrevocably in a condition of inferiority and 
dependence. If the interference of the general government could 
by any means be prevented, there would be at least a chance that 
slavery might be introduced into Kanzas ; and that, once there, it 
would increase and become a controlling influence in the future State. 

To accomplish this object, the plan determined on was boldly to 
deny that the government of the Territories belongs to Congress ; 
to assert that all previous construction and all previous practice 
of the government in relation to them have been mistakes ; that 
the words of the Constitution, from which this power has been 
derived, are ambiguous, and the meaning put on them erroneous ; 
that such a power is a violation of the rights of the South, because 
the Territories are a common possession, and the Southern people 
have the same right as the Northern to go into them with their 



property ; that the settlers of the Territories are the only rightful 
government of the Territories, and that any other construction of the 
Constitution is a violation of the principle of self-government, on 
which our institutions are founded. 

These arguments are very well suited to the popular taste, because 
they have the appearance of advocating popular power. They are, 
however, in conflict with the language of the Constitution and with 
the constant construction that language has received. Now, the 
uniform construction of a law and the practice under it are part of 
that law. They are even the most important part, forming in time 
that prescription, common law, or law of custom, which is more 
valuable and less liable to doubt or uncertainty than any written law 
can be, because it is old, because it has been tried, because it is 
familiar and associated with the recollections, habits and daily life of 
the people. If every President and every Congress can go behind 
the uniform construction given to the Constitution by the courts, and 
by the practice of the government, we are at sea indeed, on the 
billows of change, and the law of the land ceases to be a " rule of 
conduct," but becomes merely the arbitrary decree of any party that 
happens for the time to be uppermost. 

The principle that Congress is the government of the Territories, is 
the only one consistent with their condition and with their relations to 
the whole country. Are the settlers an independent nation, or are 
they American citizens ? Do they owe no allegiance to the general 
government ? Are they not entitled to its protection from foreign in- 
vasion or domestic violence ? How can they claim that protection un- 
less they form part of the nation, and are subject to its government, 
either as a State or a Territory ? These new doctrines of constitu- 
tional law set up by the South, are so transparent a sophistry, cloaked 
with false pretences, to gain a special object not avowed, and obvi- 
ously devoid of substance, either of sound principle or common sense, 
that to state them clearly is to refute them. 

Nevertheless, these doctrines, by Southern influence, have been 
adopted and embodied in the Kanzas bill. As this bill commenced 
with a broach of faith, bore on its face a falsehood, and violated the 
law — so its consequences have harmonized with its origin and nature, 
and have vindicated the wisdom of the Constitution. By giving to 
settlers in Kanzas the power to decide the question of slavery, the 
Territory has been thrown open to excited parties as an arena for 
conflict. As the question to be settled was national, and afiected 
the interests and hopes of North and South, it was idle to expect 
that it would be treated as local, that those parties would not in some 



way participate in its decision. The result has been that combined 
efforts were made on both sides. Associations were formed in the 
North to send settlers in favor of freedom ; the same thing was done 
in the South in favor of slavery. All this was not illegal, and 
might well have been expected. Unfortunately, however, the South 
has been so rash as to determine to carry its point, not by fair and 
peaceful voting, but by fraud and violence. Bands of armed men 
from the adjoining Slave State, not settlers in Kanzas, were enrolled 
and invaded the Territory with the express purpose, which they 
accomplished, of driving by force hona fide settlers from the polls and 
depositing illegal votes. To such an extent was this carried, that 
only one-fifth of the votes by which the legislature of Kanzes was 
elected were legal. These outrages were aided, abetted and sup- 
ported by the President of the United States, with all the influence 
of official power. 

By these means a legislature was chosen — a spurious legisla- 
ture, with no other than usurped power, whose acts were wholly 
void, but which proceeded to make laws for the purpose of intro- 
ducing slavery into the Territory and keeping it there. These laws 
are at variance with every principle of free government — are dis- 
graceful to the American name — and such as no portion of the 
American people can or ought to submit to. They destroy liberty 
of thought, of speech, of the press — liberty in all its forms. They are 
worthy only of Russian or Austrian despotism ; yet the President 
of the United States has endeavored to execute them with the whole 
force of the government. He has executed them promptly, eagerly, 
cruelly ; he has clothed the very ruffians by whose illegal and violent 
acts tins legislature was elected, with official authority, and carried 
fire and sword through every part of the territory. 

Exasperated by this gross violation of right and justice, the real 
settlers assembled at Topeka and elected another legislature. It was 
in favor of free labor. It also was illegal, and its acts void. The 
ident dispersed this legislature by an armed force. 

Three bills have been presented to Congress, in order to settle 
these dangerous troubles. They may be called the House bill, the 
Senate bill, and Mr. Clayton's bill. 

The first proposes to recognize the Topeka legislature and its acts, 
and to admit Kanzas at once as a free State. To this there are two 
objections. The Topeka legislature wants legal sanction. It is 
rovolutionary ; and though it is not easy to imagine stronger provo- 
cation to a revolutionary movement, yet it cannot, without violating 
important principles, be supported. No government can recognize 



, 8 

acts that deny or resist its own authority. Another objection is, that 
this bill proposes the immediate admission of Kanzas as a State. A 
State composed of a vast territory, but with only 30,000 or 40,000 
inhabitants, without wealth, art, civilization, yet clothed with all the 
power and influence of a member of this confederacy, is an absurdity. 
It is contrary to the settled practices of the government, which are 
violated to suit an emergency, and is a confession of weakness out 
of which such a proposal could alone arise. It would be unjust to 
give to the representatives of such a community in the Senate, power 
equal to even the smallest State in the Union. The future of such 
a country as Kanzas, the destined home of a numerous people, is too 
important to be left to the decision of a handful of illiterate settlers. 
The infant State requires for its protection and guidance the guard- 
ian care of a real government, during its period of pupilage. Such 
guardianship the Constitution has provided in confiding to Congress 
the government of the Territories. 

Whilst the House bill has for its object to make Kanzas a Free 
State, the Senate bill is intended to make it a Slave State. This 
last is open to the same objections as the first. It also contemplates 
the immediate admission of Kanzas as a State. It also recognizes 
an illegal legislature and its acts, a legislature elected by fraud and 
violence, and therefore without authority, and whose acts, destruc- 
tive of civil liberty, should receive the signal rebuke and condemna- 
tion of government. That even in the excitement of party contests, 
such laws have met with support and approbation, have been treated 
with anything but derision and scorn by any portion of the represent- 
atives of the American people, is one of the most gloomy signs of 
the times. It shows a fearful decline of public virtue, and reveals 
dangers unlooked for in this country and this age. Vain, indeed, 
the dream of freedom, wasted the blood of heroes shed in its cause, 
useless the labors of the wise devoted to its vindication, if principles 
such as these can prevail among the people, or rule the counsels of 
the nation. 

The difference between these two legislatures, the one recognized 
by the House, the other by the Senate, one in favor of liberty and 
the other in favor of slavery, is, that one has passed Russian and 
Austrian laws, destructive of civil rights, and the other has passed 
English and American laws, enlarging and extending civil rights. 
If obliged to choose either, the representatives of the American peo- 
ple should prefer the latter. 

These, however, are not the only objections to the Senate bill. 
It forms part of a skilfully prepared plan to introduce slavery into 



9 

Kanza8, not fairly and honestly, but by violence and fraud. It is 
the result of a conspiracy, made for this purpose by the leaders of 
Southern politics and the President of the United States. The plot 
and the duties of the several parties to it, now stand revealed by the 
progress of events. The armed bands marched into the Territory ; 
their invasion of the election grounds ; their illegal votes ; the intimi- 
dation of the settlers before an overwhelming and unexpected force ; 
the active concert and assistance given to that force by officers ap- 
pointed by the President ; the election of a pretended legislature ; 
the atrocious laws immediately passed by that legislature for the 
purpose of irrevocably fastening slavery upon the Territory ; the 
eager, zealous interference by the President to enforce those laws 
upon an indignant and resentful people, with all the enormities that 
followed, the burning of towns, the fighting, the plunder, the blood- 
shed and murder, are disgraceful and deplorable events quite unex- 
ampled in the history of the country. 

Such is the first part of this drama — the second is yet to be per- 
formed. The settlers opposed to slavery have been driven from the 
Territory. Bands of armed men have been stationed at the steam- 
boat landings to prevent others from coming in, and are now en- 
gaged in this work. This then is the auspicious moment to strike an 
effectual blow, and the leaders in the Senate are not wanting to the 
occasion. Their bill provides for the calling of a Convention, the 
election of which is placed virtually under the control of Com- 
missioners appointed by the President. This Convention is to make 
a Constitution, and Kanzas is to be immediately admitted with that 
Constitution as a State. A State of some 30,000 inhabitants, scat- 
tered over a wilderness, with a Constitution made by a Convention 
elected in the midst of alarm and confusion, under the auspices of 
men appointed to accomplish one purpose only, and by a people from 
whom all persons not uniting in that purpose have been driven by 
violence, — such is the measure of peace and justice oSered to Con- 
gress and the country by the majority in the Senate. 

The third proposition comes from Mr. Clayton. It is marked by the 
statesmanlike ability he has often displayed, and by the still higher 
qualities now so rarely seen in our public men,, of moderation, fair- 
ness, justice and patriotic regard for the interests, the feelings and 
just demands of all parts of the country. He and Mr. Crittenden 
seem to be now almost the only men in Congress who know that there 
are both a North and a South, and that they are the representatives 
of both ; that there still exists a Union, with common rights, hopes 
and destiny ; that the Constitution has not been repealed, but still 
remains, in theory at least, the supreme law of the land. 



10 

The object of Mr. Clayton's proposition is to give effect to the 
Kanzas bill, according to its declared meaning and intention — to 
enable the people of Kanzas, by a free expression by their will, 
unawed by coercion or intimidation, and uninfluenced by the corrupt 
arts of executive oflficers, to admit slavery or exclude it, as the ma- 
jority may decide. It does not contemplate the admission of Kanzas 
as a State until it shall have attained the population required by the 
present ratio of representation for a representative in Congress. It 
provides that the power of any former legislature shall cease on its 
passage. In justice to those who, on the faith of existing laws, have 
brought slaves into the territory, those laws are left untouched by 
this bill. It authorizes the Secretary of State to appoint four Com- 
missioners, " established settlers and perinanent residents of the ter- 
ritory,^^ whose duty it shall be to make an enumeration of the inhabi- 
tants and appoint oiEcers and judges of elections. 

The difference between the plan of Mr. Clayton and that of Messrs. 
Toombs and Douglas is at once apparent. In the former, the selec- 
tion of Commissioners is given to the Secretary of State, and not to 
the President, — a severe but merited rebuke to General Pierce. 
Those Commissioners have merely the power to make a census, and 
appoint judges of elections. In the Senate bill the Commissioners 
appointed by the President have power to decide on the qualifications 
of voters, and are themselves sole judges of elections ; the Conven- 
tion thus elected is to make a Constitution for a State, which when 
made is to be final, and is not to be submitted to the people for 
their approval ; thus, in fact, giving to the nominees of the President, 
and to the settlers now in the Territory, the power to decide irrevo- 
cably the question of slavery. How this power would be used and 
with what result, the recent history and present condition of Kanzas 
clearly show. 

The bill of Mr. Clayton contemplates not a Convention to form a 
Constitution for a State, but a legislature to make laws for a Terri- 
tory. The acts of such a body are not organic and final, but may 
be modified and repealed by a subsequent legislature. The question 
of slavery would thus be left open to be decided, not suddenly, in the 
midst of civil war and its alarms, by a few settlers, acting under 
partisan influence or armed intimidation, but by a real people who have 
gone or may hereafter go to make that region of fertility their home ; 
by a people who will thus have a permanent interest in its prosperity, 
and whose numbers, constantly increasing, will entitle them to re- 
spect and influence ; who will have time, during their years of terri- 
torial life, to form a mature judgment of the wants and resources of 



11 

the country and of its fitness for slave labor or free labor ; above all, 
•who will be able to form this judgment after free deliberation and 
discussion during a period of peace, security and order. This alone 
is self-government that is either safe or possible. The self-govern- 
ment of the Senate bill, to be exercised in haste, under executive 
influence and partisan dictation, amid violence and terror, at a crisis 
artfully prepared for a purpose, is a falsehood, a fraud and a mock- 
ery, designed to disguise tyranny and injustice. 

All these plans, however, are open to the fatal objection that, like 
the Kanzas Bill, on which they are founded, they are, in principle, a 
departure from the spirit and meaning of the Constitution as settled 
by the opinions of those who made it, and by uniform practice under 
it. This is enough to condemn them all. The federal government 
is the government of the Territories. These very bills impliedly 
recognize this principle, because they are acts of government over the 
Territories. The state of things out of which they grew proves the 
wisdom of this principle, because they are they result of the denial 
of it. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the introduction of 
these new doctrines of constitutional law, are consequences of a 
struggle for power between the North and the South. The South is 
afraid to trust the protection of slavery to the Constitution. It 
thinks that slavery can only be protected by extending it, by gain- 
ing new States for it, and thus securing more political power for it. 
By the regular constitutional action of the government, the South 
cannot do this without the consent of the Northern States, which it 
cannot be sure of obtaining. Southern politicians have, therefore, 
determined to alter the Constitution or disregard it, by force of 
votes, and it seems now, also, to seize on new territory by foKce of 
arms. Whether they are likely by these means to secure the safety 
they seek, is worth considering. 

There is one great fact out of which this controversy has arisen, 
and which must govern it to its end, whatever that end may be, and 
that is the superior power of the Northern States. The difference 
between the North and South, in all the elements of power, now so 
vast, is growing greater every day. This is a stern, inexorable fact, 
remediless, irresistible, but which does not seem to have its due 
influence upon the minds of' our Southern neighbors. Power has- 
certain qualities and laws, sure and punctual in their action, which 
cannot with safety be disregarded, and which, therefore, it is wiser 
to study and obey, than to deny and resist. 

This is a government of the people. The Union is a Union, not 



16 

of the States, but of the people. The great fundamental principle 
of our institutions is, that the majority of the people shall govern 
the country by their representatives, in accordance with the provisions 
of the Constitution. On what ground, then, can the South claim 
political equality with the North? Political power is the conse- 
quence of superior numbers, and the North has the majority of the 
population by six millions. As a consequence, it has a majority of 
votes in Congress. It is entitled, then, not to equality with the 
South, but to superiority over it. In all questions about which there 
is disagreement between the North and the South, the North is 
entitled to govern the country. Slavery is one of those questions. 
The North cannot interfere with slavery in the States where it exists, 
because it is there protected by the Constitution. But the Territo- 
ries belong to the whole people, and Congress represents the whole. 
The government, the absolute control of the Territories, for this 
reason, is in Congress. If the North has the majority in Congress 
on any question relating to the Territories, as to that question, the 
North has rightful power over the Territories. This power, moreover, 
is trust power ; it is coupled with duty and responsibility of the most 
solemn nature, which concern not the present only, but a wide and 
mighty future. If, therefore, the people of the North, having right- 
ful power over this question, believe slavery to be an industrial, 
social and political evil, they are bound to interfere and prevent this 
evil from being imposed upon any portion of the country under their 
control. They owe this duty to their own convictions of right, and 
they owe it to hi;manity ; for the power to do good implies, from its 
very nature, the obligation to do good, and the greater the power, 
the stronger the obligation. 

Political power results, necessarily, from superiority of numbers in 
a government where a majority rules. Something more, however, 
than mere numbers is wanting, to add moral sanction and influence 
even to legal power. If the North has superiority of population, it 
has in even greater degree the superiority in wealth, in intellectual 
and moral culture, in diffused knowledge and comfort, in all in- 
dustrial arts and improvements, in every thing that constitutes 
civilization. What measure the South really has of these things no 
American surely should wish to deny. All that it is and all that it 
has, and it is and has much that is great and worthy, are part and 
parcel of our country. But in arguing questions like the present, 
arithmetic and statistics cannot be omitted, and as facts will rule in 
practice, they must not be disregarded in speculation. The superi- 
ority of the North, not merely in numbers, but in every other 



13 

element of national strength, is beyond dispute. It is only necessary 
to ask, where are the chief seaport cities, the great inland towns ; 
where are the factories and ships, the machinery and merchandise, 
and money capital ; where the thriving villages and cultivated farms ; 
where the colleges and schools of literature, and art, and science ; 
where th^e leading journals, the great publishing houses, the writers 
who influence the mind of the nation, and give it literary reputation 
abroad ? As well compare Spain or Italy with England, as the 
South with the North. If any one wishes to appreciate Southern 
weakness, let him read Mr. Olmstead's Tour through the Seaboard 
Slave States. It is an interesting book, written with graphic power 
and evident truthfulness, in a lively, animated, dramatic style, is full 
of anecdote and adventure, and contains a series of deeply instructive 
daguerreotype pictures, painted by the light of a clear intellect, 
from real life. The view of Southern society given in this work is 
not a pleasant one for a catholic American to look at. It reveals a 
state of things very surprising, hitherto unsuspected by most persons 
in the North, probably by most in the South. It would be well for 
Southern people who wish to understand their real position, to read 
this book, if its circulation has not been prohibited by some Kanzas 
law or Lynch law, by General Pierce or Mr. Brooks. 

There is another element of moral power in the Northern States, 
also positive and real, undeniable and unchangeable, which cannot 
be evaded or resisted, and which must always influence this question, 
whatever aspect it may assume. That element is the opinion of the 
civilized world on the subject of slavery. In morals, in religion, as 
in literature and the arts, there are no national boundary lines. 
Scientific truth, the productions of genius, political reforms, social 
ameliorations, nobler and higher views of life and duty, wherever 
they originate, are a common property. Opinion rules the world, 
and opinion is modified by advancing culture, so that the maxims 
and habits of one age become barbarisms in the next. Thence the 
progress of civilization ; thence the difierence between Christian 
Europe to-day, with its liberty, its social security, its wealth, its 
literature, its arts, its intellectual culture and activity, its elegance 
and refinement, and the Europe of former ages. Of that Christian 
European civilization, we form a part. We are in daily contact 
with it, are joint heirs of all it has done, copartners of all it is doing. 
Its opinion is part and parcel of our opinion, and its suffrages, though 
not put in our ballot-boxes, do, and must of necessity, influence our 
action and our destiny. That opinion has condemned slavery — 
those suffrages have been given unanimously in sympathy with the 



u 

anti-slavery party in this country. Whether right or wrong, the 
superior mind of the most enlightened countries of Europe has 
declared this institution to be inconsistent with the present state of 
civihzation, and to belong to the barbarism of the past. This opinion, 
therefore, influencing, as it must, opinion here, giving support, 
encouragement, intellectual aid and moral weight to Northern senti- 
ment and purposes, is an important element of Northern power. 

It is with this power, so founded on numbers, wealth and intelligence, 
so guaranteed by law, so buttressed and sustained by the opinion of 
the civilized world, that the South claims equality, and claims it by 
reason of the very cause which has produced weakness in the South 
and strength in the North. It claims equality of representation 
"where there is no equality in the thing represented. It claims 
equality of power where it has a minority of votes. It claims the 
right to gain this equality by fastening upon vast regions of bound- 
less resources, and the unborn millions to inhabit them, the very 
institution that has withered its own energies and retarded its 
own progress. Such a claim is founded neither in the law of the 
land, nor in justice, nor in the nature of things. It cannot perma- 
nently succeed, and its triumphs will not endure. Whatever shape it 
may assume, of thought or act, of argument or practice, of revolu- 
tionary doctrine or revolutionary deed, it is destined to be confronted 
and defeated by the controlling fact of Northern power, which must 
in the end prevail, because it is an inherent attribute of power to 
govern. 

There is only one sort of equality that it is wise for the South to 
desire or possible for it to attain, and that is, what it has already — 
equality before the law. This is the great maxim of free society. 
Equal rights to unequal things. This is the only principle that can 
protect wealth from poverty, or poverty from wealth ; the mental 
Cultivation of the few from the brute force of the many, or the igno- 
rance of the many from the superior intelligence of the few. All 
other kinds of equality are impossible, because contrary to the laws 
of man's nature, and this alone enables all other kinds to live to- 
gether side by side, in harmony and order, uniting all talents, labors 
and powers, for the cominon good. This principle can and does give 
security to the South. It is one of the great principles of our Con- 
stitution and our Union, and only under its guardianship can South- 
ern weakness find safety in the neighborhood of its inseparable com- 
panion — Northern strength. 

The South has for its protection, for the protection of the institu- 
tion on which its repose, its prosperity, its existence depend, — but 



i 



u 

against which is banded, in formidable array, the opinion of civilized 
nations, and of a large and increasing portion of the North — 
the provisions and guaranties of the Constitution. These have 
proved so far an efficient protection. The sphere of slavery has 
not been narrowed, but enlarged. The South has greatly influenced, 
not to say controlled, the legislation of the country, and still does 
so. But whether sufficient or not, the Constitution is the only pro- 
tection that slavery has in the world. Take away that, and the whole 
world is united against it. Whilst the Constitution lasts, this great 
Northern strength, which is and must forever remain the close 
neighbor of the South, is also its brother and friend. Party arrange- 
ments, commercial interests, family ties, easy intercourse, above 
all, love for the Union and a sense of its benefits, combine to make 
the relations of North and South safe for the South and a blessing to 
both. But destroy the Union and the Constitution, then Northern 
strength becomes at once the enemy of Southern weakness, and 
with the North for an enemy, where will the South find a friend ? 

Is it not madness, then, in this passionate and foolish South thus 
to kick against the pricks, to resist facts which are like rocks and 
mountains, steadfast, immovable, and which shatter all opposition 
into spray and foam ? Was it not unwise in Southern politicians to 
violate the Missouri compact, which, if it was a barrier to them, was 
also a barrier to their enemies ? Is it not imprudent in them, by 
ingenious quibbles, and subtle repinings, and false constructions, and 
insincere pretexts, to undermine the plain, well-settled principles of 
the Constitution, when that Constitution is their only protection ; to 
make a breach in their only wall of defence ? Is there no danger 
that such arts may return to plague their inventors ? Are there no 
constitutional provisions for their safety, whose plain meaning may 
be tortured and twisted, and explained away by these attorney-like 
tricks ? Above all, is it not infatuated folly in the South to alienate 
the feelings and rouse the indignation of its powerful neighbor, by 
Kanzas invasions, and burnings, and slaughter ; by tampering with 
weak- Presidents, in whose official authority the North has an equal 
share and interest ; by Brooks assaults in the Senate House ; by 
threats and insults and violence ; by open avowed violations of law, 
and the rights secured by law ? The time may come when it will 
invoke in vain the defences of the Constitution it is now attempting 
to cast down ; when it will ask in vain for Northern votes to resist 
Northern majorities ; when it will look in vain for Northern help to 
save it from dangers more terrible than Northern majorities. 

There is one plain path out of these present troubles, and that is 



V 



16 

to go back to the Constitution. If Mr. Clayton's plan had provided 
for the repeal of the Kanzas Bill, had set aside entirely the spurious 
Kanzas legislature, and all its deeds of darkness, reenacting such of 
its laws as are necessary for the moment, including those protecting 
Slaves now in the Territory; then, under his bill, the future legislature 
of Kanzas might immediately or hereafter refuse or accept slavery 
as part of their system, and such action would be subject, as it ought 
to be, to the revision and control of Congress. Should the result 
prove that the majority of the people of this country solemnly refuse 
to sanction the further extension of slavery, it would still have the 
Constitution for its protection where it now exists, and it would be 
the duty of the South to submit, because obedience to the law is 
always a duty, and its policy also, for its only safety would lie in 
submission. Rebellion would be treason, and Northern strength can 
put down and punish treason. Even successful rebellion, after civil 
war, ending in disunion or treason consummated, would not help the 
South. Would slavery be safe during civil war ? "Would it be safer 
after disunion, with this great Northern strength still by its side, but 
no longer as a brother ? 

Thus this great fact of superior and rapidly increasing Northern 
power, governs this question, looming up from the horizon like some 
towering Chimborazo mountain, meeting the eye from whatever point it 
looks. That there is danger to slavery in these days it is vain to 
deny. It is behind the age ; it is an isolated institution ; it is in- 
consistent with any high standard of national civilization and culture. 
It is doomed to recede, not to advance ; and, finally, to be greatly 
modified or to perish. Whether this fate is to arrive peacefully and 
gradually, or suddenly and violently, depends wholly on the action 
of the South. There is security for the South, living as it must 
always do by the side of Northern strength, only in the Constitu- 
tion and the friendship of the North. The Constitution is wise, 
and every departure from it proves its wisdom. It has shown itself 
hitherto sufficient for the protection of slavery. The Northern peo- 
ple are loyal to the South. The vast majority yield willingly, zealous- 
ly, all the constitutional rights of the South. I'hey love the Union 
and the Constitution and their country, and the South as part 
of their country. They are slow to wrath, and easy to be entreated ; 
they will endure many things, but not all things. Xanzas massacres, 
General Pierce, and Mr. Brooks, are. among the things they will not 
endure. Cecil. 



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